U.N. seeks to conserve genetic resources

ROME – The
United Nations is stepping up its campaign to conserve the world’s genetic resources so crops and animals can adapt to global warming and other challenges, focusing on fish for the first time since fish are increasingly being bred to meet the world’s food needs.

Fish farming, or aquaculture, has grown enormously in recent years, representing a $70.3 billion market in 2004 alone. Farmed fish are increasingly being consumed as wild fish stocks decline from overfishing, pollution and the effects of climate change.


The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization this week is hosting a meeting on preserving the world’s genetic resources, a topic which to date has focused on crops and livestock. This year the agency is focusing on fish, and is urging governments to better conserve the world’s fish genes since genetic diversity is critical for breeding.

“10,000 years ago, we started domesticating crops, and 6,000 years ago animals,” noted Devin Bartley, senior fisheries resources officer at the Rome-based agency.

“With fish, we’ve only had the ability to breed them in hatcheries since the late 1950s or 60s. So we’re just now starting that process of domestication and genetic improvement” that can lead to production growths of up to 20 percent, he said.

AP